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In the ninth minute, Natalie Weidenbach skied a corner into the box. Center back Jenna Tivnan headed the ball into the ground, where among the scrum of players, forward Hannah Pilley came up with the ball. Pilley rifled a shot off a Pittsburgh player standing at the goal line and into the goal — Syracuse’s first goal in five games.

Pilley and her teammates wheeled away in celebration towards the left corner flag. The entire bench joined in too, as the corner flag became a mob of orange jerseys and navy blue winter coats.

But Syracuse’s lead would not last long. Defensive lapses towards the end of each half doomed Syracuse (4-9-1, 0-7 Atlantic Coast) in a 4-2 loss to Pittsburgh (9-6, 2-5 ACC). Although Syracuse lost its eighth consecutive game, it scored multiple goals for the first time since beating New Hampshire 2-0 on Sept. 5. In its eight games since that victory, the Orange offense has been limited to just a single goal, which came in a 2-1 loss to Louisville.

“[I] was really proud of my group for probably the first 15-20 minutes of the first half and probably the first 15-20 minutes of the second half,” head coach Nicky Adams said. “Unfortunately the rest of the game was not very good and it was entirely on us.”

Syracuse dominated Pittsburgh early by holding possession, making long runs and setting up chances in front of the goal. In the very first minute, Pilley forced a save from Panthers’ goalkeeper Caitlyn Lazzarini on a point-blank volley. Just three minutes later, Meghan Root crossed a ball to Pilley at the penalty spot, who headed the ball to Pauline Machtens at the left corner of the six-yard box. Machtens tried a first-time volley, but the ball tipped the crossbar and flew over the net.

Lazzarini made her second save of the game on a Root effort in the 11th minute, but she did not have to make another one for the rest of the contest.

Syracuse recorded six of the game’s first eight shots in the opening 17 minutes of play. But for the remainder of the half, the Panthers outshot the Orange 10-0. Pittsburgh gained more possession in SU’s final third and scored off two chances in the 21st and 33rd minutes to take the lead.

“I don’t think Pitt did anything crazy that put us in a situation that made us defend the way we had to do. Individually, as players, we let ourselves down in many areas,” Adams said. “Our defending and front six wasn’t very good at all minus those thirty minutes and when we were good that’s when we scored goals and should have been up 3-0 at one point.”

Although the second half did not start well for the Orange — they allowed an own goal just four minutes into the half — they pressured Pittsburgh heavily again and were rewarded with a second goal in the 52nd minute.

Weidenbach serviced a free-kick from about 40 yards out into the box, where it deflected off a Pittsburgh player and found Machtens. Machtens volleyed it into the bottom right corner to cut the Panthers’ lead in half, and she now leads the team with three goals.

But just like in the first half, Syracuse faltered after the initial 20 minutes of the half, and it struggled to possess the ball in the midfield, let alone the final third. SU’s linking play between midfield players and attacking players (some of whom are midfielders playing out of position) was disjointed and disorganized as the coaching staff pleaded with SU’s players to push up and attack.

“We were most successful when we were high pressuring and we forced them to make mistakes,” Adams said. “And because we were high pressuring we had numbers already forward that allowed us to attack in numbers.”

Once Syracuse’s attacking players received the ball, they would often errantly pass it out of bounds or towards Pittsburgh’s defenders in the middle of the field. Adams said the team’s midfield needs to be more confident on the ball so attacking reinforcements have time to push up the field and help with the attack.

Syracuse has dealt with transition issues and inconsistent play for much of the season, but Adams provided no excuses for her team.

“It’s a super unfortunate result, but it was completely on us.”

Published on October 18, 2021 at 5:34 pm

Contact Connor: cpignate@syr.edu